God Turns our Thinking Upside Down

 Who would have expected a teenage girl in a Jewish village to become pregnant without a man?

When the Virgin Mary became pregnant, it was the fulfillment of a prophecy in the Old Testament.

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. Is 7:14 NIV

Mary's fiancé was a devout Jew who was familiar with the Old Testament, but it did not occur to him to connect Mary's pregnancy with prophecy.

God intervened and Joseph's biblically based way of thinking was completely turned on its head.

Even in the Old Testament, God called Jonah to preach in Nineveh. The Assyrians in Nineveh were the cruellest and most dangerous enemies of the Jews, and Jonah did not want to obey.

Jesus had not yet come. Jesus taught that we must love our enemies, but this teaching was quite radical in the New Testament.

Jonah wanted to escape God's calling. God's plan went against everything he understood as a pious Jew.

Then God intervened again in an amazing way. A huge fish swallowed Jonah and carried him to Nineveh.

It is in the nature of God to contradict the thinking of devout Bible experts.

A conservative pastor prayed and a girl was healed, but his congregation did not believe in miraculous healings. The preacher sought advice. Had he done the right thing? A wise preacher said he should ask the girl.

Does God want us to stay sick so that we can learn patience? Many say miraculous healings are demonic. In the NT, sickness came from the devil and Jesus was the healer... Strange! And now it's the other way round? Biblically correct, right?